Almost everyone has heard of Oktoberfest. And most have been to a celebration of some sort, somewhere in the world. But nothing compares to being able to experience it where it all began back in 1810. Initially started as a week of festivities leading up to the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig to Princess Therese, it has grown in size and myth each year. Now, over 6 million people attend the 16 day festival and over 7.7 million liters of beer are consumed in that same period. If you do the math, that is an average of 375,000 people drinking 481,250 liters a day. Each and every day of the festival. And that average includes the underage/nondrinkers...
We arrived at the Theresienwiese (the official grounds) a bit after 11 am. And we were hungry, and thirsty. I had read enough information before hand to know that getting a table inside one of the "tents" would be difficult, if not nearly impossible, since we did not have reservations. We decided to just pop on into one of the first we saw and hope that because it was still early on a Sunday morning, and it was the second weekend of the festival (the opening and closing weekends are crazy!) that we would luck out. And we did. We managed to find an entire table free. We sat ourselves down, ordered a beer each (soda for the girls) and some food - sausages, chicken, sauerkraut, fries and proceeded to feast.
The outside of the "tent". Which is a funny word for a building that can hold thousands.
Giant doesn't even begin to describe that pretzel.
Both equally happy with our drinks!
We had eaten some lunch but we hadn't gotten our dessert, so as soon as we saw these we had to stop. Yes, they were as good as they look. As evidenced by the fact that MadHatter is wearing hers...
Too bad we hadn't left any room in our tummies for these...I kid. Fish on an empty belly does not interest me; fish, skewered on a stick, and sold to me head, tail and all will never interest me.
The girls had been really good while we sat and drank our beers, so we headed over to the midway and let them pick out a few rides to enjoy. Because, though it is known for it's beer, Oktoberfest is not only about the beer. It is also about the fair. It reminded me of the State Fairs that we have back in the U.S. There are rides everywhere, with souvenir booths, midway games and food stands all around. So for anyone wondering if Oktoberfest is a place for children the answer is a resounding yes. They are everywhere. And since there is no beer allowed outside of the tents, it keeps those that are serious about the drinks, away from those that are serious about their rides. Like my girls.
After a few rides, the park was really starting to fill up (see picture, upper left). We figured if we were going to be able to get a seat at another tent, we had better do it quickly.
Tip - the entrance to the grounds or any of the tents is free. And if there is a table open in the non-reserved sections of a tent, you are free to sit down. But that relies on luck. And lots of it, especially on weekends. The smart thing to do is to get a reservation to a tent. Starting in January or February, you can apply for a table. You go to the website of the tent you would like to reserve and enter your information. They will then get back to you in late August with your confirmation, if you got a seat. You then pay in advance for your consumption (usually a minimum of 2 beers and one meal per person for a minimum of 8/10 people) and are issued tickets to turn into your waiter the day of your reservation. It doesn't save you any money - you still pay full price for the beer (between 10 and 11 euro per liter) and food but it does give you peace of mind that you will have a place to sit. Your reservation is either for the morning (10-3) or the afternoon (4-9) and allows you to enjoy yourself in a less crowded part of the tent. Easy peasy.
We did not do this - though we did get reservation confirmations to two tents - because we were only 7, with two of those being non-drinking minors and 1 Nana that doesn't drink much. It just seemed the more practical idea to take our chances on getting a spot, and not paying for 20 beers/10 meals that we would have to try to consume between 4 drinkers. I don't know if you really know how big a liter of beer is but let's just say that 5 of those would put anyone on their tush...
Ochsenbraterie tent - true to it's name, it serves many Oxen dishes. Oh, and Spaten beer.
They looked very inviting so we went in, but they had no space for us...So we continued.
I guess she wins. Though at two beers she is carrying light. These girls (and guys) can carry up to 5 in each hand. With each mug (full) weighing 5 lbs each, that is pretty impressive. And a great weight training program.
There were approximately 1400 beer mugs when they started in the morning. By my calculations - there are about 650 mugs in use and that is by noon, on Sunday, and just in the outside beer garden. The inside beer hall has its own supply.
This is one of the largest tents. They can seat 6900 inside and another 2400 outside. Alas, it didn't have a single space for us. But it sure was pretty to look at.
The Hofbrau tent. Packed, once again. We were giving up hope at this point and were just about to call it an afternoon and head to the actual Hofbrau house for a beer. But B told us to wait, we hadn't been to that many really. We needed to try one or two more. And he did have a point - there are only 14 tents total, we should be able to check them out pretty quickly and see if there was free space in one of them. But we didn't have to look far. We lucked out at the very next one.
With its circus colors and merry go round band stage, the girls were enthralled the minute we waled in. We got seats pretty close to the band so thankfully they have a noise cap of 85 db inside the tents, and not electric instruments, until after 6 pm. We ordered our beers, and settled in for awhile. We were not giving this table up until we were ready to leave the grounds.
Another interesting tidbit - there are only 6 breweries that can produce official Oktoberfest beer and the beer must be produced within the Munich city limits to be trademarked. Each tent only sells it's breweries brand of beer so, in the two tents we were able to get beer in, we tasted the Paulaner at our first tent and the specially brewed Märzen beer called Oktoberfestbier by Löwenbräu at the Marstall tent.
Our waiter showing us how it is done.
Grampa asked for a tip on how to get the 5 mugs into one hand (there is a trick to it)
And he even lifted them! Granted, a few of them were empty, but it was still really hard. I tried and couldn't get them up even a bit.
We each finished our first, and then ordered a second, because someone fell asleep. I won't name names but if you know this family, you will know who it is...
The kids all got on stage with the band to dance and sing - in German. My girls just watched and danced from their seats, soaking it all in.
Prost!
This one finally woke up after sleeping about an hour - through the band, the dancing and the cheering crowds! - and tried her hand at a kid sized mug of water.
We all stopped for a souvenier. What else - an official Oktoberfest beer stein.
We said Auf Wiedersehen and headed to dinner someplace a bit less crowded and noisy.
He probably should have stopped about a liter before he did!
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